1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical image pickup apparatus for imaging a living body tissue by using a confocal optical system.
2. Related Art Statement
Recently, an optical scan type confocal microscope has been known as means for observing living body tissues and/or cells with higher resolution in an optical axis direction. However, in this case, the size of a general confocal microscope is large, and a sample is cut into small sections and is placed on the microscope for observation.
A technology for guiding a small confocal microscope to and observing a biological digestive tract, for example, has been disclosed as a minute confocal microscope in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 9-230248, for example.